Countries at the COP28 climate talks need to stop posturing, aim high and agree on a way to end the "fossil fuel era as we know it", UN climate chief Simon Stiell said on Wednesday, as tension over the future of coal, oil and gas came to the fore.
The UN climate chief was speaking as the two-week conference approaches its midpoint when attention turns to behind-the-scenes negotiations, following the opening flurry of announcements.
"All governments must give their negotiators clear marching orders. We need highest ambition, not point-scoring or lowest common denominator politics," Stiell told a news conference.
COP28's host country, the United Arab Emirates, said more than $83 billion had been mobilised during the first five days of the event.
US climate envoy John Kerry said it had been "a pretty damn good week" so far, but that the pace of emissions cutting had to be accelerated.
"I'm not telling you that everybody's going to come 'kumbaya' to the table. But I am telling you, we're going to make a best effort to get the best agreement we can to move as far as we can as fast as we can," Kerry told a news conference.
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EU calls for 'beginning of the end' of fossil fuels
The European Union threw its weight behind phasing out the use of coal, oil and natural gas, calling for the COP28 talks to “mark the beginning of the end” of fossil fuels.
European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra told a news conference that the bloc is seeking a “higher bar” in negotiations.
“We have over 190 parties here at COP28 and we need all of these parties, all of these parties to agree to phase-out fossil fuels,” warned Hoekstra.
Small island nations and other developing countries have also signaled support for a phase-out of fossil fuels, but any agreement coming out of COP has to be near unanimous.
Spain’s deputy Prime Minister, Teresa Ribera, currently holding the Presidency of the European Union, called on COP28 chief Sultan al-Jaber to do more to push for an agreement on ending fossil fuels.
“We expect leadership” to deliver an ambitious agreement, Ribera said, adding that she expected the COP president to be more than “an honest broker".
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African nations urge wealthy countries to quit fossil fuels first
Diplomats said opposition to a full fossil fuel phase-out was being led by Russia, Saudi Arabia and China, which is the world's biggest carbon emitter.
Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told Bloomberg TV that his country would "absolutely not" agree to a deal that calls for a phase down.
Some representatives of African nations have said they could support a phase out deal if wealthy countries, who have long produced and used fossil fuels, agree to quit first.
"To tell Uganda to stop fossil fuels, it is really, really an insult. It's like you are telling Uganda to stay in poverty," Uganda's energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa said.
Nankabirwa said the country could accept a long-term phase out, if it made clear that developing nations can exploit their resources in the near term, while wealthy long-time producers quit first.
"First in, first out – and we will be happy to be the last one to exit from fossil fuels," she said.
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Scientists say 2023 will be warmest year on record
European Union scientists said 2023 would be the warmest year on record, adding to the pressure on COP28 negotiators to phase out the use of CO2-emitting coal, oil and gas, the main source of warming emissions.
The temperature for the January-November period was 0.13 degrees Celsius higher than the average for the same period in 2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.
November 2023 was the warmest November on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 14.22C, 0.85C above the 1991-2020 average for November and 0.32C above the previous warmest November, in 2020, Copernicus added.
This year "has now had six record breaking months and two record breaking seasons. The extraordinary global November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2C above preindustrial, mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history," deputy director of C3S Samantha Burgess said in a statement
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Development bank head urges African exemption from EU carbon tax
African countries should be exempt from a plan by the European Union to impose a carbon tax on some imports, the head of the African Development Bank said on the sidelines of the COP28 summit, putting the cost of the levy to the continent at as much as $25 billion a year.
Under the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which comes into force from 2026, imports of cement, iron, steel, aluminium and fertilisers would be taxed if they originate from countries with less onerous carbon emissions rules.
African countries are relying on fossil fuels as they increase energy production to serve growing populations and as they seek to manufacture more in order to export higher value products, although renewable energy investment has increased.
EU manufacturers have argued for the CBAM because they say they cannot compete with cheaper and more polluting production beyond their borders.
African Development Bank chief Akinwumi Adesina said the net result of the CBAM would be for Africa to revert to exporting more raw materials.
"Africa can't afford to lose 25 billion dollars a year," he said. "Secondly is the fact that Africa's use of natural gas to complement its renewable energy would give us the stability that everybody needs to be able to industrialise... So I think Africa deserves a carve-out."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
